According to Syd Field, author of Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting, screenplays are so simple, so formulaic, so predictable that any idiot can write one. Although, he admits, only about 40 out of 2,000 are worth putting on the silver screen. Sound contradictory? You ain’t seen nothing’ yet! A screenplay has a simple plot, Syd says, divisible (as Aristotle divided it, thousands of years ago) into three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Profound? You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!